Ah ha! After taking a one week break Mr Potato is back to throw in more intellectual trivia for you! In the 21st century, our life is centred around various communication mediums. To date, I'm sure most of us are familiar with programs like MSN messanger, Facebook, Youtube etc. Being a netizen has never brought us so many opportunities to interact with one another, but have you wondered how dependant you are on technology?How much control does it have over your life?
Life has become more hectic with the emergence of newer communication technologies. What happened to the good old days when you could just laze in bed on Sundays and not bother about work? With Blackberry's to tie you down, one can almost hear their Boss's voice nagging through the email.Techonology has become so embedded in our society that most people will feel crippled if they have their mobile phone taken away from them. One might wonder if this is truely the direction we wish to head in.
Much of our privacy has been lost in this age too. When looking at online networking platforms like Friendster and Facebook, we see people putting personal information like their age, where they stay, which school they study in etc. This is enough for any Tom, Dick or Harry to press a few keys and run a google search on you. You never know if there is a virtual stalker leering at your picture.
Wait, there's more. How often do we receive junk mail or spam in the form of SMS's through unknown advertisers? When we visit a certain webpage you never know who is secretly collecting data about your preferences and selectively sending you advertisements that might perk your interest (most of the time they don't) This form of virtual harassment is probably happening every second despite the layers of firewalls that supposedly protects us.
The bottom line? The world is not what it was 20 years before. Technology has become part and parcel of our lives and it is up to us to discern how we should deal with it. Should we integrate ourselves with it fully or set up perimeters to safeguard against potential threats? What are your views? Let's hear them!
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15 comments:
debated to death but interesting nonetheless, the advancement of technology is inevitable. being perceived as the only way that humans can progress, by being more connected with the world and all, there is no way that you can run away.
i will say open our arms wide and embrace (:
i doubt that society can run as smoothly as it does without using tech devices. i would say that convenience comes with the cost of privacy, and that when it does come down to such a decision, we must bear in mind that others would definitely choose convenience to empower themselves in today's economic rat race.
well, as a person w/o facebook or friendster (oei, why r u looking at me strangely?), i feel e loss of privacy is a matter of choice. Is there really a need to dump ur personal info ALL on e internet?
Nevertheless, I am positive that mobile communication devices has made our world progress.
the age old topic of technology. whether should we embrace it at the cost of our privacies and what not, or to reject it at the cost of isoloation.
ah well, for me, it all boils down to balance.
technology has indeed made life a lot easier for us. finding long-lost friends thru facebook, keeping in touch with msn, the list of how all these devices make life easier can go on and on.
however, the flip side of the coin is that you're somehow being controlled by technology as well. imagine a day w/o all these, can you really survive a day or two w/o ur mobile? it's hard isn't it? you need to talk to someone in another country on some business. take ur mobile and start dialing or emailing...
we're just so used to all the conveniencies.
so strike a balance, don't cut yourself completely off from technology but make sure it doesn't control u either...spend ur weekends w/o a computer and turn off ur mobiles...
I think with the advancing of technologies there are many threats we can't avoid. however, we have to take it positively, can't totally shut out because of threats.
and some threats are avoidable, like not putting up real perosonal to the web unless you need to, install anti-virus softwares to protect your computer, prevent personal data been hacked.
i believe whenever there is a threat, there will be a solution to it.
lastly, i have to say technology plays a very important role in today life. why don't we just open our arm and accept it, live with it? cheers
i agree that technology has become a part of our daily lives. we would be lost without it. yes, we should make full use of it, but at the same time not become too heavily dependent on it. imagine storing all your data in your computer and it crashes.
Techonology cant really be a threat unless you're one completely devoid of self discipline or society. Why would anyone heed the call of a ringtone when you can attend a concert and listen to serenades the likes of Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston? The "on/off" button on the telephone is there for a reason. Use it! Don't blame the phone when your ego is always hankering after the next social call. You have a life already, start living it.
Well i have had my share of technological "black out" while serving NS so i definitely can relate to the feeling of detachment. It is only when you step out of its influence that you realize how big an impact it has on you. I suspect we will become even more dependant on technology in the years to come.
as much as technology really helps with the progress of society, it does also blur the lines and remove boundaries to people's privacy. for example, like what u said about facebook and friendster. with so much information about yourself out on the web, it is truely difficult to mask urself, no matter how many precautions you take.
i agree with rolan that it is your choice to a certain extent. facebook and friendster are NETWORKING groups, and naturally people join these groups to know more about people and vice versa. i have a blog but i choose to let a handful of close friends know about it and that is my personal choice. sure someone may stumble on my blog and i have no control over that. however, because i do not put much personal information on the blog, it is hard to determine who the blogger is and there's no way of identifying me. thus, some form of anonymity is still achieved (:
With any advancement, there will always be possible drawbacks and new threats created. Progress in communicative technology is no exception. But comparing the advantages of technology with its disadvantages, I would say technology is overall improving quality of life. For example, while there is the new threat of cyber-terrorism created as a result of technology, we are more aware of such threats and able to disseminate more information faster as result as well. In essence, using technology to solve technological woes.
As for dependency of technology, I would say the human race has been dependent on technology for centuries. Where would we be now without the wheel? There's no escape from technological dependency.
guess what, i wrote bout similar things too! technology and its destructive nature to humans. haha. okay fine not really but yup. i agree, humans are jsut so dependent on the net these days, books are getting all dusty on their shelves.
no net, how to live?
i'm super dependent on the many technologies around me, my pc, my DS, my PS, MSN and so many more lor.
Even going to the bank proves to be a super big hassle now, so i have internet banking. here comes the prob of safeguarding my pc from external threats and stuff.
Another big hassle for me.
complain complain complain. No technology , we whine. With loads of technology, we complain. why ah?
i think. that the real question you raise, which you hinted at in the first three paragraphs but did not explicitly raise, is whether our 'integration' (as you put it) with technology is a boon or a bane.
to this, i think that it is definitely a boon simply because it provides so much convenience. but then again, as you pointed out, much of our 'privacy has been lost too.'
but this statement is, imo, not so much a definite downside but a risk we willingly undertake. perhaps people in undeveloped african countries do not realize how often people do data mining on the net but i believe that singaporeans are more than well-informed about such acts, having so many featured in the news and blogs like these. yet, intriguingly, some of these people still willingly put their information on the net. the only logical conclusion is that these people believe the pros to outweigh the potential downsides.
so i cannot have any sympathy for these people who are of age, know what they are doing and yet wail and screech about people using info against them.
in summary, i think the internet is a definite boon, and the downside of information abuse by other people is mainly a false issue.
Yes, it is a fact that we are all very dependent on technology. There is a loss of human-touch when this happens. However, in this fast paced society, time is money and it is scarce, thus inventions like the mobile phone definitely makes our life easier.
Ah! yes, online profiles, all our private info are flowing out to the world, but who makes the decision to put them up online in the first place? At the end of the day, I feel that we still have a choice to everything, one has to weigh his/her actions & consequences and act accordingly.
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